What I heard on a three day road trip... (not much)

[Sshannon]

Fortunately it’s not like that everywhere.  Although our ham club is mostly older guys (including myself) we have very smart and forward thinking young people involved as well who are doing great things with real repeaters that they are monitoring using things like 5GHz links.  They’re playing with SDR dongles and squeezing a lot of interesting listening out of them while monitoring public safety communications.  They’re setting up WinLink connections so they are able to send long distance emails and data files in case the internet fails, which would complement HF for long distance voice communications.

Yes, some of us do have our hotspots.  I think of them as training wheels while we learn how to set up our codeplugs.  I first assembled my hotspot so I could play with DMR, but last week I got a new Yaesu FT5D radio and by flipping a single bit I was able to turn on YSF support so I could learn some of the ins and outs of System Fusion digital communications. When I was learning how to build my DMR codeplug I thought that was very confusing until it finally clicked and now all makes sense.  I’m at a similar point on the learning curve for YSF.

At the same time our club members are helping provide communications by volunteering with Search and Rescue, the Sheriff’s Department, and county emergency response as well as providing communications for runs and bike races through the mountain trails where cell service is nonexistent  

So, the radio portion of ham radio is far from being eliminated in my area, but there are always some who don’t see what’s really going on who think it is. 

[marcspaz]

I've mentioned this before, I think experiences are regional. I'm with several ARES teams and one of them is extremely active with supporting local, state, Federal and DOD with communications. I can tell you right now that, even with all of there high-end communications gear that have some people looking down their nose... every time there is a mass municipality response, no one can talk to each other directly. The government has been trying to fix this problem for 40 years and it's still a problem. 

 

Then, my team recently supported a DOD event for the US Marine Corps. There where several Marine outposts and checkpoints that lost 100% communications with command. If it wasn't for the amateurs embedded with them, it would have been hours before a communications path was restored... some locations had no idea their radios weren't working.

 

Command later told me specifically that the reason we are invited to all of these events is because we regularly move more traffic, faster and with more accuracy than the Marines do.  And we regularly get the same types of feedback from the local and state agencies as well.

 

I think it sucks that some of you have bad experiences, but it's not everywhere and Ham radio certainly isn't a dead or an antiquated EmComm resource.

[gman1971]

On 1/16/2022 at 10:57 PM, WRKC935 said:

Hobby radio is going by the wayside.  It sucks, but it's still the truth.  GMRS is not a lot different than ham in this respect.  I realize it's not 'hobby radio' in the sense that ham is but it's not really commercial either.  Commercial gets boosted as subscribers and reaccuring fee's keep many businesses away from going cellular but everyone else has gone to cell phones.  And you can't blame them.  The manufactures are marketing Android based radios now that will act as a phone in certain situations and they are making radios that work on the cellular network for those that really miss Nextel. 

All I can say is if you enjoy GMRS / Ham Radio or both, stay with it and don't worry about others not seeing a use for it.  Phones work great until they don't.  Radios will most likely work after the cell network is cold if something drastic happens, but don't let that be the only reason you are messing with radios.  It really takes the fun out of it.

 

I was gonna say, LTE radio is becoming a thing, a lot of commercial users are abandoning the classic LMR radios in favor of cellular based radio, b/c with LTE you get all the infrastructure already in place, little to no maintenance, etc... it is happening. 

But like you said, the cell network works until it doesn't.

G.

[WRPC505]

15 hours ago, Sshannon said:

Fortunately it’s not like that everywhere.  Although our ham club is mostly older guys (including myself) we have very smart and forward thinking young people involved as well who are doing great things with real repeaters that they are monitoring using things like 5GHz links.  They’re playing with SDR dongles and squeezing a lot of interesting listening out of them while monitoring public safety communications.  They’re setting up WinLink connections so they are able to send long distance emails and data files in case the internet fails, which would complement HF for long distance voice communications.

Yes, some of us do have our hotspots.  I think of them as training wheels while we learn how to set up our codeplugs.  I first assembled my hotspot so I could play with DMR, but last week I got a new Yaesu FT5D radio and by flipping a single bit I was able to turn on YSF support so I could learn some of the ins and outs of System Fusion digital communications. When I was learning how to build my DMR codeplug I thought that was very confusing until it finally clicked and now all makes sense.  I’m at a similar point on the learning curve for YSF.

At the same time our club members are helping provide communications by volunteering with Search and Rescue, the Sheriff’s Department, and county emergency response as well as providing communications for runs and bike races through the mountain trails where cell service is nonexistent  

So, the radio portion of ham radio is far from being eliminated in my area, but there are always some who don’t see what’s really going on who think it is. 

That's good to see. On my end, I may have dropped it as far as the ARRL is concerned, but I've changed my emcomm view to family and friends, the people that matter most in my life. Many don't fully understand the importance of it, but a few do, with my wife being the best example (she works as a 911 dispatcher locally). And I am beginning to learn more about hotspots, 900 MHz ISM and more. I figure that what I do know will come in handy eventually.

Edited June 6, 2022 by WRPC505
Corrected spelling of an acronym.

[WRFP399]

On 1/26/2022 at 11:04 AM, BradfordD said:

What type/model/brand of car exterior antenna (and cord) would you recommend for a HT?  That type of setup would surely extend the range - but seems awkward in practice....? 

So for my HT I just bought on of these antennas:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X2LJ4HB/ref=twister_B08G1B6L6R?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

The antenna stub just pulled out of the knurled threaded section. I cut off the coils. I removed the paint on the cut end and pushed it back into the knurled threated section. I just use it as a 1/4 wave whip for GMRS. I reduced the coax to about 7 feet. Done.  Small and quick to "deploy".   Best antenna out there? Nope but far and away better than trying to use an HT inside a car with the stock antenna.